Last Chance?
by HotaruGFC
Summary: A scene extension of the dinner Charlotte and Yami share in Chapter 221, where Charlotte is a little more brave with her feelings after confessing them to the brigade.


She had done it.

She couldn't believe she had done it, but she had.

And he accepted.

And now Charlotte sat across from Yami, alone.

Just the two of them.

Sharing a meal.

Charlotte's heart had been racing since they had sat down. She fought to control her breathing as their food arrived. But slowly, she grew more comfortable, more relaxed.

Relaxed enough to ask him what he had wanted to discuss in the first place.

Surprise did not begin to describe her reaction when he said he wanted to talk about her curse. Embarrassment and disappointment also crossed her mind. She berated herself for getting her hopes up. She should have known he didn't want to talk about anything more... personal. Not after what he had said.

She told him what she knew of the curse, of what had happened to her, even if she still did not know all of the details herself. The curse had been placed on her as a young girl, long before she was awarded her grimoire, but not before her magic had made itself known. She remembered distinctly the first time she had made the roses bloom blue instead of red. She had cried for hours.

She answered his questions and listened to his confirmations of their shared suspicions.

But then it was her turn to surprise him. In all of her research into her curse, in all of her efforts to undo its effects, Charlotte stumbled upon knowledge about one of his squad members and found a connection between them and forbidden magic which far outweighed hers.

Yami watched her and sipped his wine as she told him what she knew.

"It's not much more than a suspicion, and instinct, but..." She shrugged. "It fits with everything I've learned."

She wrapped her hands around her glass of water and sipped it slowly.

"I see. Thanks, Charlotte. I'll keep that in mind as we head out."

The racing in her chest returned at the sound of her name in his voice. She took a deep breath and released it in a shaky exhale. She swallowed hard as their eyes met across the table.

"So Lord Julius is really sending you all away?"

"Yeah."

He looked out over the city, puffing away on his cigarette, not noticing or not caring to notice as she stared at him in the dim light afforded by the lamp floating above their heads.

"Any idea where you are going to go?" She asked after the silence had stretched out longer than she could stand.

Yami shrugged.

Charlotte sipped her water. The restaurant's atmosphere oozed romance, as her squad member had insisted. And yet, Yami seemed oblivious to it all.

"When are you leaving?" She asked in a further effort to strike up a conversation.

"I'm not sure. A few days, maybe?"

"I see." His lack of elaboration annoyed her. She took another sip of her water to cool rising ire. He stubbed out the remains of his cigarette into a small dish before lifting his glass of red wine to his lips. He cast his gaze over the lights which studded the dark city skyline. Charlotte wished for a moment she could read his thoughts. She desperately wanted to know what thoughts were passing through his mind.

"Funny. I'm already sort of missing this place." Yami pulled out and lit another cigarette. "Never thought it would get under my skin this much."

"And you have no idea where you are going to go?"

"There are a few leads. I mean, that prick wants to know about the creepy demon guy we fought, so I figure going someplace known for demons might be a good start."

"The Spade Kingdom closed its borders recently, didn't they?" She wanted to kick herself for turning the discussion toward geopolitical analysis, though she knew they both had received the same information. She doubted Yami even read the briefings.

"Yeah, they did. But I know a few people. Well, Mister Probationary Runt knows a few people anyway."

"For one so young, he certainly seems to know quite a bit."

"I guess." Yami took another long drag on his cigarette and blew out in a steady stream of smoke.

"He is far more perceptive than I ever realized." Charlotte swirled the water in her glass, her gaze fixed on how the liquid moved along the side of the glass as she rotated it. She felt her heart racing again as Yami's intense gaze fell upon her.

"What do you mean?"

Charlotte chuckled as her mind rattled off a list of things she could mention.

Instead, the most recent instance erupted from her throat.

"Well, today, for instance. He... He could, He could see what was going on and he could, he figured out what was going on." Charlotte's cheeks felt flushed.

"Yeah, what was going on? Your entire squad was up in arms, rowdy even. You have some sort of man sacrifice or something?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes. How could she get through to him? Coming right out and saying it was too much for her heart to handle.

"No. That's just a rumor. I don't even know how that started. But it wasn't anything like that at all."

"So, what had gotten you all so worked up?"

"I... I gave them some... news."

"Must have been some news to have them all hyper like that."

She glanced up from her cup to see him staring at her still. His eyebrows were raised in an unspoken question. His cigarette was in one hand and his cup in the other. She looked back down into her cup, swirling the clear liquid around the sides once more.

"I told them... about this person... this guy whom I like."

She glanced up at him to see his mouth hanging open.

"You? You like a guy." Yami said when he finally regained the use of his words.

"What's so surprising about that?"

"Well, why wouldn't it be? I mean, you hate men, don't you?"

Charlotte sputtered for a moment and looked at him incredulously. He really couldn't be this dense, could he?

"No... I, I don't hate men. I mean as a general rule most of the ones I've had to deal with have been just awful, but there are some I like. Lord Julius, for instance. You."

"Wait, what?"

The cigarette dangled from his bottom lip as he stared at her in surprise.

"I..." Charlotte cleared her throat and squared her shoulders as if she were going into battle. Perhaps she was entering a battle with herself. "I like you, Yami."

He retrieved the cigarette before it fell. Knitting his brow together, he glanced at the tabletop and then back to her.

"I... I never thought you could. I mean, I've always liked you, Charlotte. You're an amazing fighter, more competent than most. I've always felt... secure with you at my back. But I also always felt you did everything to, I don't know, show how much better you are..."

What the hell is he talking about?

Charlotte closed her eyes, realizing it was time to tell him, and she would have to tell him all or nothing.

"No. Yami, I like like you." She stressed the word, leaning toward him, making certain to catch his eye and hold his gaze.

And still, nothing quite clicked.

"Like, I like you." She said again, nodding her head and wagging her eyebrows.

He looked at her with confusion in his eyes.

"You sure are saying 'like' an awful lot."

"Oh, for crying out loud." Charlotte sighed in exasperation before she stood up. She leaned across the small table and grabbed him by his shirt. The movement must have surprised him. She knew she was not strong enough to pull him if he resisted her, but he moved far more easily than she imagined he could. She pulled him across the table toward her and pressed her lips against his.

The contact was brief as she realized what she had done and where she had done it. She felt the eyes of everyone in the restaurant turn her way and her face flush crimson at the thought of such public scrutiny.

She sat back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap, wishing for the attention to fade.

"Oh," Yami said softly as he leaned on the table, still locked in the position from the kiss. Charlotte glanced up at him. She thought she could see the wheels turning in his mind and the pieces fall into place. His eyebrows shot up and his eyes grew wide as he looked at her. "Oh!"

He bit his bottom lip and looked again to the cigarette in his hand. Charlotte could tell he was trying to figure something out, and when he looked up at her once more, she could have sworn his cheeks were slightly discolored. Or was it a trick of the lighting?

"Why?" The timbre of his voice had shifted. The change was barely noticeable, but it no longer had the cocky confidence to which she was accustomed.

Her heart tried to escape her chest at he looked at her, their eyes connecting for the first time in what felt like ages. Maybe it had been? Charlotte could not remember a time when she had looked at him so completely. She had never allowed herself. Not since the first time when she had felt the prison closing in on her heart snap as easily as the vines he had cut with his sword.

She shrugged.

"It's... I'm not sure I can say."

Yami stuck the cigarette back between his lips and then pressed his hands into the table.

"All these years, and I never imagined you would like me too." He said in a shocked whisper.

"What?" Charlotte's eyes widened in shock.

Yami chuckled, which turned into full-blown laughter.

"And of course we figure this out right before I'm leaving for what could be years." He sighed as the laughter died away. He stared at the table again for a moment before meeting her eyes once more.

"Sounds about right, though, doesn't it?" She looked away into her glass as she tried to make sense of what he had said and why she had been so scared. His hand on her chin turned her face back to him. He pressed his lips against hers, not in the timid, uncertain kiss she had given him, but in a slow, lingering way which insisted on her response.

And respond she did.

"You wanna go talk about it somewhere a little more private?" He asked after a long moment where she felt she would be lost in him forever.

"Yeah." She felt the color rising to her cheeks once more. "That would probably be good."

He held out his hand to her once he stood up. Charlotte hesitated to take it. She looked at it for a moment before slipping her hand inside his grasp. He pulled her up and Charlotte's heart raced as she stood close to him. He shifted his hand beneath hers, letting her fingers slip through his. He squeezed her hand as his fingers curled around hers.

Charlotte stood paralyzed until he tugged on her arm.

Once they stepped into the open air of the city, Charlotte found her voice enough to ask the question which had been running through her mind since he had said it.

"So, um, what did you mean earlier?"

"Hmm? What are you talking about?"

He squeezed her hand, but she could feel him close off from the question. The bravado in his voice had once more supplanted the vulnerability she had glimpsed earlier.

"When you mentioned something about liking me too?"

She noticed a sort of shiver or twitch pass through him out of the corner of her eye. She felt the pressure of his hand surround hers once more.

"Oh. That."

"What did you mean?"

He scratched the back of his head with his free hand and then pulled an unlit cigarette from somewhere and tucked it between his lips.

"I, uh, I didn't mean anything. Not really." He dropped her hand, lit his cigarette, and immediately slipped his fingers back between hers once more. The grip he had seemed tighter than before, almost painfully so.

"You're lying."

Yami stopped. Charlotte took a half-step more before his grip on her hand tugged at her arm forcing her to stop as well. She looked at him over her shoulder. In the half-breath she took as she watched him, she could see his uneasiness flicker across his features. She had no idea why she was so certain he had been lying, but she could feel he had lied to her deep within her bones. She glanced at the hand he was nearly crushing in his grip. She turned to face him, closing the short distance between them.

"I..."

She placed her free hand on his chest.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I took my leap of faith tonight. Doesn't mean everyone has to."

He let out a small relieved sigh, blowing smoke out around his cigarette. He took it from between his lips with his free hand and dropped it to the ground beside them. Blowing whatever smoke remained out, he stepped on the half-burned cigarette before slipping his hand against her cheek and around her neck. Before she could think to protest, he kissed her again. The kiss was slow and lingering; it curled her toes and made her stretch upward to continue it even as he backed away.

"I've always liked you, Charlotte. I... I guess I never thought you would like me. You always seemed I don't know, too high for me, maybe? Too far above me? I mean, you could have any man you wanted. Why would you want me? What could I have to give you?"

Charlotte rubbed her lips together in thought, trying to make sense of the revelation. What could he give her? He had only given her the most precious thing.

"You gave me more than you know, Yami." She looked into his eyes. Her mind vaguely registered the people on the street who may be watching them, but she no longer cared.  
The ones whose opinions mattered to her the most already knew and had given their enthusiastic approval. "You saved me when no one else could. You opened my eyes in a way no one else ever has. And yes, you've even helped me," Charlotte sighed as she felt the words she had heard him say numerous times spring to her mind. "Surpass my limits, by making me realize I don't have to do it all alone."

She stroked the rough stubble on his cheek before standing on her toes to bring herself more to his eye level. She kissed him, once more not caring who saw.

"Don't ever doubt what you have given to me. I wouldn't be who I am without you."

Yami's arm wrapped around her waist and tightened, pressing her body into his and supporting her weight lest she topple backward. When he kissed her back, she could feel the smile on his lips.

"So why the hell did we wait so long?" He asked once he broke the kiss, pressing his forehead into hers.

Charlotte shrugged, knowing full well, their fears had held them both back. She gasped as Yami kissed her again, only this time on her jaw, near her ear. The touch and the heat of his breath against her skin made her entire body flush and tingle.

"Doesn't matter now, I guess. But it sure does suck finding this out a couple of days before I'm leaving." He kissed her again. "Wanna make up for lost time?"

As he kissed her neck once more before traveling to her lips, Charlotte knew the answer to his question was an emphatic yes.


End file.
